Over 160 years after Charles Dickens penned, what is now hailed as his greatest work, Great Expectations, has found a new life in Steven Knight’s smartly crafted limited series by the same name. Adaptations are no easy feat to pull off, especially not when there has been one (or two) nearly every decade for over a hundred years. After all, comparison is the thief of joy, and audiences will either find themselves comparing it to the novel or an adaptation that preceded it. Knight has managed to glean the most integral aspects from Dickens’ text, crafting over six hours of deeply engaging storytelling that rebuilds Great Expectations as something both new and distinctly familiar.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY

It may be difficult to see the potential in an orphan like Pip (Tom Sweet), whose future relies solely on his cruel and callous sister Sara Gargery (Hayley Squires) and her good-natured blacksmith husband Joe (Owen McDonnell). But therein lies the great expectations for his future, which are shaped by the deceptive machinations of Miss Havisham (Oliva Colman) — a woman clinging so desperately to her trauma that she haunts the halls of her own home, looking for her next victim. There is nothing truly good or pure about any character in Great Expectations, except perhaps Joe — whose steadfast belief in his nephew, despite his harsh transformation, is an anchor that tries to keep Pip tethered to the port. Likewise, Biddy’s kindness (Laurie Ogden) is like a lighthouse, guiding him back home, when Estella’s (Shalom Brune-Franklin) siren call might do him harm.

Image via Hulu

RELATED: ‘Great Expectations’: Release Date, Cast, Trailer, and Everything You Need to Know

Elevated from a lowly blacksmith’s boy to a gentleman, Pip (Fionn Whitehead) turns into the very thing he once detested, as he is forged into another weapon for Miss Havisham to wield against a society that did her wrong. Knight floods his adaptation with vivid, visceral images of water and flame — two forces that can give and destroy: always at odds. Whether these images come in the form of tumultuous seas, street-slicking rain, buildings ablaze, or tallow candles swaying in the wind, they always showcase the duality of man as an ever-evolving thing.

Pip’s life is entwined with a colorful array of personalities who are similarly entangled in the brambles of Miss Havisham’s cunning schemes. Jaggers (Ashley Thomas) is a powerful lawyer who acts as Pip’s guide through the upper echelons of society, building on the lessons that Pip learned as a bright-eyed boy. Beneath the surface, Jaggers has his own secrets — ones that link him to the criminal underbelly that always lurks just beneath the surface of high society. Like the escaped convict Magwitch (Johnny Harris) who left an indelible mark on Pip as a young boy, out on the coastal marshes of Kent.

Image via Hulu

The limited series premieres with a pair of two episodes that swiftly navigate the audience through Pip’s early years, delivering them to the precipice of his rise to wealth and relative mediocrity. From there, the following four weeks see Pip’s life thrown into the chaos and gluttony associated with gentlemanhood, with each episode ending in a hook to drag audiences back for another dose of misery like grand ole masochists, similar to how the serialized form of Dickens’ work kept his readers returning week-to-week.

This adaptation of Great Expectations has been updated for a modern audience without truly sacrificing the historical context or the literary allusions that Dickens often employed. The largest area of improvement lies within the way that this series frames its female characters: they are not just pawns or angels of the hearth. Even Estella, who is forever and always a tool of Miss Havisham’s cruelty, is given more agency over her fate — breaking free of the chains that would have seen her abused for the benefit of others. Much in the same way, we don’t see other female characters beaten down for stepping outside of Victorian gender norms or whose abuse is used to torment the men in their lives. These changes, while some book purists may dither about, do not alter the intent of the story in any meaningful way beyond improving the enjoyment for audiences who dislike gratuitous violence against women.

For those who have studied Great Expectations to any extensive degree, you will find that some of the loftier concepts—particularly the compulsion to repeat—are significantly more understated. Those who haven’t read any supplemental analysis of Dickens’ work will likely miss the cyclical nature of Pip’s name, the deeper context of breaking Magwitch’s chains, and the visual and narrative symmetry between Miss Havisham and Estella.

Image via Hulu

Beyond the exceptionally well-crafted scripts — which could be talked about at great length, though it would spoil far too much — Great Expectations features some of the best historical costume designs of this decade. Oftentimes, particularly among streaming series, costuming appears to be an afterthought or a wild flight of fancy. With this series, Verity Hawkes’ designs keep true to the fashions of Victorian England and seem keenly aware of the differences between upper, middle, and lower classes, while utilizing the full breadth of patterns, textures, decorations, and styles that were often on display during this period of transformative fashions. There is a great joy to be found in an adaptation that recognizes the beauty in hems altered by muddied wear, correctly tailored men’s trousers with perfectly styled fall fronts, and the necessity of pins to keep up aprons. Estella’s vast collection of dresses and hats is another highlight of Great Expectations, which helps to showcase the way Miss Havisham uses her like a doll to dress up and puppet. She is also often the only character to bring pops of color into Pip’s otherwise dreary existence.

Great Expectations finds a perfect balance in crafting a faithful adaptation while recognizing the necessity of change. The moral dilemmas, biting social commentary, and clever literary allusions are not lost to time, but time has provided new tools to see them explored through different lenses and different points of view. Whether this is someone’s first introduction to this piece of bildungsroman or the tenth adaptation they have consumed, they will find joy, sorrow, and beauty in what Steven Knight has constructed.

Rating: A

The first two episodes of Great Expectations will stream on Hulu on March 26, with new episodes released weekly every Sunday.